


Borrowed Time

by facingthenorthwind (spacegandalf)



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Gen, pre-game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-26
Updated: 2012-11-26
Packaged: 2017-11-19 14:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/574511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacegandalf/pseuds/facingthenorthwind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's only a matter of time until Sam has to tell his parents he's failing.</p><p>[Spoilers for Mission 9.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Borrowed Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ohdappledthings](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=ohdappledthings).



> Wow, this got depressing, sorry! And I know I'd said I'd have it up before I went to bed, and that is still true, as it is now quarter past two in the morning. (I really meant before you went to bed too, so sorry about that.)

Fuck, Sam doesn't understand a word of this reading he's meant to be doing. It may as well be written in Arabic for all he's getting out of it. If he failed this class, he'd fail the entire course, and then his father would realise...well, he would disappoint the family; his father would never look him in the face again. French would pale in comparison to that reaction -- and his mother would be so _disappointed_. He'd thought about telling them so many times -- telling them that he wanted to work in radio, that he was _good_ at it, that there were jobs and some of them didn't pay too badly...

He couldn't, though. He never would.

The fact that his sister was acing first year Law just made him feel worse, if he was honest with himself. He wanted to be happy for her but when she'd been practically worshipped at Christmas it just reminded him of how much of a failure he was. A disappointment. Someone knocked at the door, and he almost didn't bother to answer -- he didn't want company, not tonight. Julia was there when he opened the door, though, and he stood in the doorway, frowning.

"Why are you here? Is everything alright?" He couldn't think of a reason for his sister to be visiting, so he assumed something bad was behind it. Why else?

"Can't a girl visit her brother to say hello? I miss you, bro!" she said, grinning and almost crushing him in a hug. He hugged her back, but it was hardly enthusiastic, a half-arsed pat on the back.

"Do you want coffee?" he offered as he finally got out of the doorway so she could come in, going to the little kitchenette and getting two mugs out of the cupboard. She nodded, and he spooned out instant while she wandered around the room. It wasn't until he'd set the kettle to boil that he found her reading one of his papers -- that he'd failed. Like most of the others.

"Sam?" she asked, and her tone hurts. It's confusion, mostly, but he knows she's disappointed, she must be. Her older brother is a failure.

"Here, give that to me -- I didn't realise I'd left that out, sorry," he said, not looking at her.

"Sam, is uni going alright? You never talk about it."

"Engineering, not much to talk about. Can't exactly have a casual conversation about, uh," quick, what the hell did they learn in class? "vector calculus and stuff."

"Do you like it?"

He didn't answer. No one had ever asked him that. The kettle boiled, and he went to pour it, focusing on stirring the coffee instead of the silence that waited for him in the other room.

"Sam," she said when he came back, handing her a mug, "how long has it been going badly? I assume that wasn't an anomaly, that essay."

"It's always been going badly," Sam admittedly, taking a sip of his coffee too soon and burning his tongue.

"Why have you stuck with it? You're in your fourth year -- you could've done something else, something you enjoyed."

"What, and be disowned? You know Dad would never've gone for that."

Julia knew he was right. He could tell by how she looked down and drank coffee instead.

"You know, I hear you on the campus radio sometimes. It's nice to hear your voice."

"It's nice to be there -- I really like doing that, you know? It's a distraction from all...this." He waved his arm around for emphasis. A distraction from his classes, his failure, his inevitable future.

"You're going to have to tell them eventually," Julia pointed out. Them. His parents.

"I--" Sam stopped, not sure what to say. He would have to tell them when he came out of university a fucking waste of space, with no degree and no future. "I know," he said, taking a gulp of coffee. "I know."


End file.
